Taxonomy & Definitions

Intelligence that is learned, displayed, and carried out by machines. An "intelligent" machine perceives its environment and then takes actions that maximize its chance of success at some goal.
A complex combination of various components that can be defined as systems where perception, decision making, and operation of the automobile are performed by electronics and machinery instead of a human driver, and as introduction of automation into road traffic
A vehicle that is capable of sensing its environment and navigating without human input. A human may select a destination but is not required to
mechanically operate the vehicle. Autonomous vehicles sense their surroundings with such techniques as radar, LIDAR, GPS technology, or computer vision. Advanced control systems on board the vehicle then interpret the sensor
 nformation to identify the appropriate navigation paths and obstacles and interpret the relevant signs

Cooperative Automation pertains to connectivity and communication between CAVs, roadway infrastructure and devices, mobile devices, and digital maps. The goal is to bring all elements of a transportation corridor together and share real-time information with one another.

A communications protocol developed to address the safety critical issues associated with sending and receiving data among vehicles and between moving vehicles and fixed roadside access points. These provide low-latency data-only V2V and V2I communications
SAE Levels 3-5 vehicles with automated systems that are responsible for monitoring the driving environment, in order to draw a distinction between Levels 0-2 and 3-5 based on whether the human operator or the automated system is primarily responsible for monitoring the driving environment (FIRS)
Any piece of equipment connected to the cooperative system that is placed on the roads, bridges, rail-lines, and similar public works that are on or near a transportation system or other public institution
A network of physical objects—devices, vehicles, buildings, machines, and other items—embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity that enables these objects to collect and exchange data. In its simplest terms, the IoT is about physical “things” with the ability to sense, actuate, and communicate.
Levels of Automation (LoA) designate the automated capabilities of a vehicle, and differentiate AVs from HAVs, with level 0 translating to no automation and 5 translating to full automation. An AV with an LoV greater than 3 would be considered an HAV and be more likely to fair well on a well-maintained roadway with adequate striping than it would on a rural road because the sensor technologies rely heavily on pavement markings to operate.

Level 0: No automation
Level 1: Driver assistance (SAE)
Level 2: Partial automation
Level 3: Conditional automation
Level 4: High automation
Level 5: Full automation

An expensive, but extremely accurate technology, which is effectively a Laser based version of Radar and used in autonomous vehicles. The LIDAR unit, usually sits on top of the vehicle roof to enable unhindered 360-degree view of the area surrounding the vehicle. Lasers spin at about 900 rpm and create a detailed 360-degree 3D map of the surrounding environment in order to view all obstacles in real time. This unit bounces laser beams off object surfaces up to 100m around the autonomous vehicle and then builds a 3D picture from this raw data via the vehicles microprocessor, to accurately determine the identity and distance of the object
A technology used to provide imaging-based automatic inspection and analysis for such applications as automated inspection, process control, and robot guidance, usually in industry. Machine vision is a term encompassing a large number of technologies, software and hardware products, integrated systems, actions, methods and expertise
Data that are collected continuously and made available for immediate processing. Vehicle RTD includes information about vehicles such as current fuel consumption, braking behavior and temperature, and information on the current level of traffic or the state of the road ahead (
A service that provides drivers with information about the current state of traffic in a road network. It is updated to show how conditions are changing and may apply to all or part(s) of the road network
A DSRC transceiver that is mounted along a road or pedestrian passageway. An RSU may also be mounted on a vehicle or is hand carried, but it may only operate when the vehicle or hand carried unit is stationary.
The signal state of the intersection and how long this state will persist for each approach and lane that is active, according to the SPaT Benefits Report. The SPaT message sends the current state of each phase, with all-red intervals not transmitted. Movements are given to specific lanes and approaches by use of the lane numbers present in the message. In a connected vehicle environment, the message is sent from the roadway infrastructure to approaching vehicles

  • Camera
  • LiDAR
  • Radar